Eight months after Maryland's governor declared a moratorium...

Eight months after Maryland's governor declared a moratorium on executions, a judge agreed to sign a death warrant, allowing the first capital case to move forward under new Gov. Robert Ehrlich.
"Consider the moratorium lifted," said Ehrlich spokeswoman Shareese Deleaver.
The death warrant for convicted killer Steven Oken paves the way for the state's first execution in nearly five years. Judge John G. Turnbull II said on January 21 he will sign it.
Oken, 40, who was sentenced to death in 1991 for the sexual assault and murder of a 20-year-old newlywed in 1987, is scheduled to die by lethal injection the week of March 17, according to his lawyers, though delays were likely as they seek a challenge of the death penalty law.
"We knew that there was a substantial possibility that the warrant would be signed as soon as Gov. Ehrlich took office," said Fred W. Bennett, Oken's attorney.
Bennett said he will file motions in Baltimore County Circuit Court challenging the state's death statute in an attempt to halt his client's execution.
Ehrlich, who took office on January 15, had made it clear he planned to lift a moratorium on executions imposed by outgoing Gov. Parris Glendening.
Glendening, a Democrat, halted executions in May 2002, saying it was necessary to give lawmakers the chance to analyze the results of a two-year University of Maryland study on the use of the state's death penalty.
Twelve men are on death row in Maryland.
The only other state with a moratorium on executions is Illinois. On January 11, then-Gov. George Ryan cleared Illinois' death row, commuting 167 condemned inmates' sentences just before he left office. Ryan's successor, Democrat Rod Blagojevich, has said he will continue the moratorium.